This is a crisis of solvency, not just liquidity, but true deleveraging has not begun yet because the losses of financial institutions have been socialised and put on government balance sheets. This limits the ability of banks to lend, households to spend and companies to invest…

The releveraging of the public sector through its build-up of large fiscal deficits risks crowding out a recovery in private sector spending.

After finishing The Black Swan, I realized there was a cancer. The cancer was a huge buildup of risk-taking based on the lack of understanding of reality. The second problem is the hidden risk with new financial products. And the third is the interdependence among financial institutions.

[Interviewer]: But aren’t those the very problems we’re supposed to be fixing?

NT: They’re all still here. Today we still have the same amount of debt, but it belongs to governments. Normally debt would get destroyed and turn to air. Debt is a mistake between lender and borrower, and both should suffer. But the government is socializing all these losses by transforming them into liabilities for your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. What is the effect? The doctor has shown up and relieved the patient’s symptoms – and transformed the tumour into a metastatic tumour. We still have the same disease. We still have too much debt, too many big banks, too much state sponsorship of risk-taking. And now we have six million more Americans who are unemployed – a lot more than that if you count hidden unemployment.

[Interviewer]: Are you saying the U.S. shouldn’t have done all those bailouts? What was the alternative?

NT: Blood, sweat and tears. A lot of the growth of the past few years was fake growth from debt. So swallow the losses, be dignified and move on. Suck it up. I gather you’re not too impressed with the folks in Washington who are handling this crisis.

Ben Bernanke saved nothing! He shouldn’t be allowed in Washington. He’s like a doctor who misses the metastatic tumour and says the patient is doing very well.

Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz calls it “socialism for the rich”. So do many others.

Devalued Paper Currency

The second characteristic of a banana republic is “Devalued paper currency in the international community.”

✓ Check. Here’s a chart of the trade weighted US Dollar from 1973-2009.

And here’s a bonus chart showing the decline in the dollar’s purchasing power from 1913 to 2005:

Politicians Use Time in Office to Maximize Their Own Gains

The third characteristic of a banana republic is:

Kleptocracy — those in positions of influence use their time in office to maximize their own gains, always ensuring that any shortfall is made up by those unfortunates whose daily life involves earning money rather than making it.

Summers, Geithner, Bernanke and Congress like things just the way they are.

Of course they do … they’re bought and paid for:

Lobbyists from the financial industry have paid hundreds of millions to Congress and the Obama administration. They have bought virtually all of the key congress members and senators on committees overseeing finances and banking. The Congress people who receive the most money from lobbyists are the most opposed to regulation. See this, this, this, this, this, this, and this.

Obama received more donations from Goldman Sachs and the rest of the financial industry than almost anyone else

Summers and the rest of Obama’s economic team have made many millions – even in the first few months of being appointed, or right beforehand – from the financial industry

There must be no principle of accountability within the government so that the political corruption by which the banana republic operates is left unchecked. The members of the national legislature will be (a) largely for sale and (b) consulted only for ceremonial and rubber-stamp purposes some time after all the truly important decisions have already been made elsewhere.

✓ Check. There’s no accountability.

For example, former Vice President of Dallas Federal Reserve, who said that the failure of the government to provide more information about the bailout signals corruption. As ABC writes:

Gerald O’Driscoll, a former vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said he worried that the failure of the government to provide more information about its rescue spending could signal corruption.

“Nontransparency in government programs is always associated with corruption in other countries, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be here,” he said.

William K. Black – professor of economics and law, and the senior regulator during the S & L crisis – says that that the government’s entire strategy now – as during the S&L crisis – is to cover up how bad things are (“the entire strategy is to keep people from getting the facts”).

Indeed, as I have previously documented, 7 out of the 8 giant, money center banks went bankrupt in the 1980’s during the “Latin American Crisis”, and the government’s response was to cover up their insolvency.

There has been no honest examination of the crisis because it would embarrass C.E.O.s and politicians . . .

Instead, the Treasury and the Fed are urging us not to examine the crisis and to believe that all will soon be well.

PhD economist Dean Baker made a similar point, lambasting the Federal Reserve for blowing the bubble, and pointing out that those who caused the disaster are trying to shift the focus as fast as they can:

The current craze in DC policy circles is to create a “systematic risk regulator” to make sure that the country never experiences another economic crisis like the current one. This push is part of a cover-up of what really went wrong and does absolutely nothing to address the underlying problem that led to this financial and economic collapse.

The same is true with every other piece of financial “reform” legislation which has been passed. See this and this.

It’s all for show, folks. Dodd, Frank, Obama and all the other politicians of both parties (with the exception of a handful trying to do the right thing) are “consulted only for ceremonial and rubber-stamp purposes some time after all the truly important decisions [about economic legislation] have already been made elsewhere”

Without the Bananas

Wikipedia gives some additional background on the term “banana republic”:

Banana republic is a pejorative term originally used to refer to a country that is politically unstable, dependent on limited agriculture (e.g. bananas), and ruled by a small, self-elected, wealthy, and corrupt clique.

Well, America isn’t dependent on limited agriculture like bananas. But just about the only areas of growth are in the military and in giant companies lavished with buckets of cash and special “favors” by Uncle Sugar.

9/11 Truth

Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth
1193 architectural and engineering professionals and 8042 other supporters including A&E students have signed the petition demanding of Congress a truly independent investigation. Sign the petition on this site.

Ottawa 9/11 Truth
A group dedicated to educating the public and questioning our elected representatives about the issue of 9/11 truth. Education and activism.

Pilots For 9/11 Truth
Pilots for 9/11 Truth is an organization of aviation professionals and pilots throughout the globe who have gathered together for one purpose. We are committed to seeking the truth surrounding the events of the 11th of September 2001.

WhatREALLYhappened
Mike Rivero’s HUNDREDS of questions that need to be answered, plus some great articles in the archives.

Activism

Activist Post
Our new site offering independent news. Now is the time to get active!

Checkpoint USA
Standing up for our legal right to remain anonymous in America. We DO NOT have to give them our papers.

We Are Change
A grassroots organization dedicated to peace and social justice working to reveal the truth behind the events of September 11th, as well as the lies of the government and corporate elite.

One Heart Books
A variety of books about The New World order, alternative medicine, and consciousness

Peter Dale Scott
Peter Dale Scott is an eloquent inspiration for many modern researchers.

Thom Hartmann
Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight — A complete analysis of the how we let ourselves destroy our planet, as well as the personal responsibility each of us has to change our perception of what we admire.

Eugenics

L.E.A.R.N.
For or against abortion, you should know about how organizations like Planned Parenthood really operate

Health and Survival

2012 News — Lawrence Joseph
There is quite a bit of science which shows that from now until 2012 will be a very tumultuous time for the planet. One look at current earthquake activity supports Joseph’s analysis.

Dr. Len Horowitz
Tetrahedron, LLC is a non-profit educational corporation that was founded in 1978 by internationally known public health authority, Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz, to educate people around the world on matters of extreme public importance.

Journalism

Daniel Estulin
Best known for his tracking of The Bilderberg Group, Estulin is a real journalist covering many facets of The New World Order.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. Incisive columns from another real journalist.

Dr. Stanley Montieth
Bringing you the Story behind the Story, the News behind the News. Hosted by Dr. Stanley Montieth, who is a leader in the battle against the medical establishment.

McClatchy News
Truth to Power — covering topics normally off limits in the mainstream. They have done a particularly great job with their Goldman Sachs investigation.

Rick Newman
I don’t always agree with his conclusions, but Rick Newman is in the mainstream media highlighting the important issues that we often cover.

Webster Tarpley
Long-time researcher and author Webster Tarpley has an amazing record for predicting geopolitcal events. A real journalist.

Non-partisan Organizations

Campaign For Liberty
Promoting American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity.

Freedom Force International
A network of men and women from all parts of the world who are concerned over loss of personal liberty and expansion of government power.

Global Research
An independent research organization and media group of writers, scholars, journalists and activists based in Montreal. It is a registered non profit organization in the province of Quebec.

The Nature of Reality

David Icke
Icke lets information and intuition direct his course; his conclusions about the nature of reality are mind-opening. He is fearless and tireless in his quest for the prime truth and does not shrink from the term “Conspiracy”